Pages tagged with "Sketch (“taken from life”)"http://www.rc.umd.edu/taxonomy/term2/26027/all
enJoseph Johnson (Black Joe of N4 Chandos Street, Covent Garden)http://www.rc.umd.edu/gallery/joseph-johnson-black-joe-n4-chandos-street-covent-garden
<section class="field field-name-field-description field-type-text-long field-label-above view-mode-fulltext"><h2 class="field-label">Description:&nbsp;</h2><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">A black man in a sailor’s uniform leans on a crutch and cane in a nondescript environment. In his left hand he holds a brimmed hat, while atop his head sits an elaborate model ship affixed to a simple cylindrical cap.</div></div></section><section class="field field-name-field-copyright field-type-text field-label-above view-mode-fulltext"><h2 class="field-label">Copyright:&nbsp;</h2><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Copyright 2009, Department of Special Collections, Memorial Library, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI</div></div></section><section class="field field-name-field-galleryimage field-type-image field-label-above view-mode-fulltext"><h2 class="field-label">Gallery Image:&nbsp;</h2><div class="field-items"><figure class="clearfix field-item even"><img typeof="foaf:Image" class="image-style-none" src="http://www.rc.umd.edu/sites/default/files/galleryOriginals/00cbfec4e0c542f612f39955a378a85f.jpg" width="3276" height="4818" alt="" /></figure></div></section><section class="field field-name-field-text-date field-type-text field-label-above view-mode-fulltext"><h2 class="field-label">Date:&nbsp;</h2><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">1817</div></div></section><section class="field field-name-field-image-date field-type-partial-date field-label-above view-mode-fulltext"><h2 class="field-label">Image Date:&nbsp;</h2><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">1817</div></div></section><section class="field field-name-field-original-publication-date field-type-date field-label-above view-mode-fulltext"><h2 class="field-label">Original publication date:&nbsp;</h2><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><span class="date-display-single" property="dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="1817-01-01T00:00:00-05:00">1817</span></div></div></section><section class="field field-name-field-original-pub-date field-type-text field-label-above view-mode-fulltext"><h2 class="field-label">Image Added Date:&nbsp;</h2><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">2009-5-21</div></div></section><section class="field field-name-opencalais-person-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above view-mode-fulltext"><h2 class="field-label">Person:&nbsp;</h2><ul class="field-items"><li class="field-item even"><a href="/category/person/joseph-johnson" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Joseph Johnson</a></li></ul></section><section class="field field-name-field-associated-user field-type-text field-label-above view-mode-fulltext"><h2 class="field-label">Associated User:&nbsp;</h2><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Joseph Johnson</div></div></section><section class="field field-name-field-gallery-location field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above view-mode-fulltext"><h2 class="field-label">Location:&nbsp;</h2><ul class="field-items"><li class="field-item even"><a href="/category/gallery-locations/covent-garden" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Covent Garden</a></li></ul></section><section class="field field-name-field-primary-works field-type-text-long field-label-above view-mode-fulltext"><h2 class="field-label">Primary Works:&nbsp;</h2><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><em>Vagabondiana, or, Anecdotes of mendicant wanderers through the streets of London</em> (1817)</div></div></section><section class="field field-name-field-accession-number- field-type-text field-label-above view-mode-fulltext"><h2 class="field-label">Accession Number:&nbsp;</h2><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Thordarson T 4263</div></div></section><section class="field field-name-field-height-in-centimeters field-type-text field-label-above view-mode-fulltext"><h2 class="field-label">Height (in centimeters):&nbsp;</h2><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">19</div></div></section><section class="field field-name-field-width-in-centimeters- field-type-text field-label-above view-mode-fulltext"><h2 class="field-label">Width (in centimeters):&nbsp;</h2><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">12</div></div></section><section class="field field-name-field-featured-in-exhibit field-type-entityreference field-label-above view-mode-fulltext"><h2 class="field-label">Featured in Exhibit:&nbsp;</h2><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/gallery/exhibit/unsanctioned-wanderings">Unsanctioned Wanderings </a></div></div></section><section class="field field-name-field-from-the-collection field-type-entityreference field-label-above view-mode-fulltext"><h2 class="field-label">From the Collection:&nbsp;</h2><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/gallery/collection/department-special-collections-memorial-library-university-wisconsin-madison">Department of Special Collections, Memorial Library, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI</a></div></div></section><section class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-3 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above view-mode-fulltext"><h2 class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</h2><ul class="field-items"><li class="field-item even"><a href="/category/tags/vagabond" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">vagabond</a></li><li class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/tags/beggar" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">beggar</a></li><li class="field-item even"><a href="/category/tags/mobility" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">mobility</a></li><li class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/tags/nomadism" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">nomadism</a></li><li class="field-item even"><a href="/category/tags/racial-classification" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">racial classification</a></li><li class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/4359" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">slave trade</a></li><li class="field-item even"><a href="/category/tags/sailor" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">sailor</a></li><li class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/tags/mercantile-capitalism" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">mercantile capitalism</a></li></ul></section><section class="field field-name-field-style field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above view-mode-fulltext"><h2 class="field-label">Style:&nbsp;</h2><ul class="field-items"><li class="field-item even"><a href="/category/style/genre-scene" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Genre scene</a></li><li class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/style/eccentric-biography-portrait" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Eccentric Biography Portrait</a></li><li class="field-item even"><a href="/category/style/sketch-%E2%80%9Ctaken-from-life%E2%80%9D" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Sketch (“taken from life”)</a></li></ul></section><section class="field field-name-field-artist-unknown field-type-list-boolean field-label-above view-mode-fulltext"><h2 class="field-label">Artist Unknown:&nbsp;</h2><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"></div></div></section><section class="field field-name-field-creator-engraver field-type-entityreference field-label-above view-mode-fulltext"><h2 class="field-label">Engraver:&nbsp;</h2><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Smith, John Thomas</div></div></section><section class="field field-name-field-creator-author field-type-entityreference field-label-above view-mode-fulltext"><h2 class="field-label">Author:&nbsp;</h2><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Smith, John Thomas</div></div></section><section class="field field-name-field-parent-section field-type-entityreference field-label-above view-mode-fulltext"><h2 class="field-label">Parent Section:&nbsp;</h2><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Romantic Circles Gallery</div></div></section><section class="field field-name-field-skeleton-data- field-type-list-boolean field-label-above view-mode-fulltext"><h2 class="field-label">Skeleton Data?:&nbsp;</h2><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"></div></div></section><section class="field field-name-field-latitude-longitude field-type-geofield field-label-above view-mode-fulltext"><h2 class="field-label">Latitude/Longitude:&nbsp;</h2><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">POINT (-0.144834 51.518018)</div></div></section><section class="field field-name-field-description-other field-type-text-long field-label-above view-mode-fulltext"><h2 class="field-label">Description (Other):&nbsp;</h2><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="printing_context"><h2 class="section-label">Printing Context</h2>This image is a plate in the second chapter of <em>Vagabondiana, or, Anecdotes of mendicant wanderers through the streets of London: with portraits of the most remarkable, drawn from the life</em>, by John Thomas Smith (London, 1817).</div><div class="associated_places"><h2 class="section-label">Associated Places</h2>Chandos Street, Covent Garden, London.</div><div class="associated_texts"><h2 class="section-label">Associated Texts</h2><em>Vagabondiana, or, Anecdotes of mendicant wanderers through the streets of London</em> (1817)<div class="customBreak"><br /><br /></div>Smith's <em>Vagabondiana</em> attempts to categorize and evaluate the wandering poor of London. Included under the category of "industrious beggars," we find a description of Joseph Johnson:
<blockquote>The succeeding plate displays the effigy of Joseph Johnson, a black, who in consequence of his having been employed in the merchant’s service only, is not entitled to the provision of Greenwich. His wounds rendering him incapable of doing further duty on the ocean, and having no claim to relief in any parish, he is obliged to gain a living on shore; and in order to elude the vigilance of the parochial beadles, he first started on Tower-hill, where he amused the idlers by singing George Alexander Stevens’s “Storm.” By degrees he ventured into the public streets, and at length became what is called a “Regular Chaunter.” But novelty, the grand secret of all exhibitions, from the Magic Lantern to the Panorama, induced Black Joe to build a model of the ship <em>Nelson</em>; to which, when placed on his cap, he can, by a bow of thanks, or a supplicating inclination to a drawing room window, give the appearance of sea-motion. Johnson is as frequently to be seen in the rural village as in great cities; and when he takes a journey, the kind-hearted waggoner will often enable him in a few hours to visit the market-places of Staines, Rumford, or St. Albans, where he never fails to gain the farmer’s penny, either by singing “The British Seaman’s Praise,” or Green’s more popular song of “The Wooden Walls of Old England. (Smith 33)</blockquote></div><div class="subject"><h2 class="section-label">Subject</h2>This image features Joseph Johnson, a beggar and street singer, wearing a model of the <em>HMS Nelson</em> he built himself as a hat.</div><div class="theme"><h2 class="section-label">Theme</h2>Vagabond. Beggar. Mobility. Nomadism. Racial classification. Slave trade. Sailor. Mercantile capitalism.</div><div class="significance"><h2 class="section-label">Significance</h2>In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, London had a sizable black population ranging from between 15,000 to 20,000 residents, more than half of whom were free (Olsen 29). Working as a sailor was one of many, primarily lower-class occupations available to black Britons. Joseph Johnson is notably excluded from the military and thus, despite obvious injuries, does not receive compensation from Greenwich. Johnson’s choice of hat may have been inspired by his time as a sailor, and yet the juxtaposition of a black man and large ship during a time of heated debate surrounding slavery also resonates on other levels. At the time of this sketch, “taken from life,” the slave trade had (ostensibly) been abolished, but slavery itself was still rampant—a fact that may or may not have been lost on the women taking sugar in their tea as Johnson theatrically “sailed” passed, “by a bow of thanks, or a supplicating inclination to a drawing room window” (Smith 33). Additionally, ships held the threat of deportation, as London officials concocted solutions to the “problem” of the city’s black poor. Proposals to rid the city of black beggars included a plan put forth by Henry Smeathman in 1786 to ship London’s impoverished blacks to Sierra Leone, where they could become self-sufficient and eventually begin to “supply Britain with various raw materials” (Gerzina 142-73). <div class="customBreak"><br /><br /></div> The treatment of beggars, vagabonds, and the disabled was one issue around which the English constructed their identity, especially in attempting to distance themselves from the French. It is telling that the concluding remarks of Smith’s text are taken from a community “deprived of its property during the French Revolution.” By alluding to the atrocities of the Revolution, the audience is reminded of the dangers of not “appeasing” the poor through charitable acts in the “English manner.” While the unemployed (or seemingly unemployed) were often considered a problem or nuisance, they were also admired for their creativity and theatrics (it is worth noting that traveling players were among those consistently classified as vagrants). “Black Joe’s” inventive strategy is lauded, though the author admits that in highlighting such examples “he has adopted the usual craft of the common vender, who invariably puts the best sample into the mouth of the sack” (Smith viii). The recognizability of a particular vagrant could also foster national coherence. We are told that “Black Joe” can traverse many towns in a single day, and thus, although he cannot be claimed by any one parish, he becomes a known personality shared by many dispersed communities. <div class="customBreak"><br /><br /></div> The mobility of the homeless also served the Romantic artistic imagination in a number of ways. First, for poets and painters, the rural and urban poor were popular subjects, either as models, objects of meditation or catalysts for expressions of empathy, longing, and admiration. Furthermore, as the introduction to <em>Vagabondiana</em> reminds us, “Beggars have not only been useful to artists as models, but serviceable to them in other instances. Francis Perrier, who was born of poor parents, when a boy, entered in to the service of a blind beggar, for the express purpose of getting from France to Rome, to pursue his studies in that city; and Old Scheemaker, the sculptor, Noleken’s master, absolutely begged his way from Flanders to Rome, for the same purpose” (Smith viii). Thus, the wandering lifestyle of beggars and vagrants was often seen as compatible with an artistic interest in new and varied experience gained through unrestrained travel.</div><div class="function"><h2 class="section-label">Function</h2><em>Vagabondiana</em> strives to classify London’s myriad and diverse population of wandering poor into distinct categories. Organized around abstract qualities such as industriousness, the text produces an archive of distinct “types” valued for their perceived role as representative of larger categories. “Black Joe” is taken to represent both the black urban poor (he is one of only two characters in the book identified by a racial signifier) and the particularly creative or ingenious beggar.</div><div class="bibliography"><h2 class="section-label">Bibliography</h2>Gerzina, Gretchen. <em>Black London: Life Before Emancipation</em>. New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 1995. Print.<div class="customBreak"><br /><br /></div>Olsen, Kirsten. <em>Daily Life in 18th Century England</em>. Westport: Greenwood, 1999. Print.<div class="customBreak"><br /><br /></div> Smith, John Thomas. <em>Vagabondiana, or, Anecdontes of Mendicant Wanderers Through the Streets of London</em>. London: A. Arch, 1817. Print.</div><div class="long_title"><h2 class="section-label">Long Title</h2>"Joseph Johnson ('Black Joe' ) of N4 Chandos Street, Covent Garden" 1817<div class="customBreak"><br /><br /></div> John Thomas Smith (1766-1833) <div class="customBreak"><br /><br /></div> Engraving <div class="customBreak"><br /><br /></div> Plate in <em>Vagabondiana, or, Anecdotes of mendicant wanderers through the streets of London: with portraits of the most remarkable, drawn from the life</em>. John Thomas Smith (London, 1817).</div></div></div></section>Tue, 16 Apr 2013 18:41:04 +0000Anonymous38437 at http://www.rc.umd.eduGoodrich Castlehttp://www.rc.umd.edu/gallery/goodrich-castle
<section class="field field-name-field-description field-type-text-long field-label-above view-mode-fulltext"><h2 class="field-label">Description:&nbsp;</h2><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Goodrich Castle sits atop a massive hill, which is partially covered in trees (to the left of the ruins) and partially eroded (bare rock forms the base of the hill directly below the castle). To the left, a large shrub or tree hangs out over the water, overlapping our view of the hill. To the right another hill, partially forested, frames the central bluff. The Wye extends from the viewer between these banks to the base of the central hill. It is unclear which way the river bends around the hill. The water is calm, and the sky is mostly cloudy.</div></div></section><section class="field field-name-field-copyright field-type-text field-label-above view-mode-fulltext"><h2 class="field-label">Copyright:&nbsp;</h2><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Copyright 2009, Department of Special Collections, Memorial Library, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI</div></div></section><section class="field field-name-field-galleryimage field-type-image field-label-above view-mode-fulltext"><h2 class="field-label">Gallery Image:&nbsp;</h2><div class="field-items"><figure class="clearfix field-item even"><img typeof="foaf:Image" class="image-style-none" src="http://www.rc.umd.edu/sites/default/files/galleryOriginals/d6cd772124bea743be0fd7133776a903.jpg" width="3998" height="2710" alt="" /></figure></div></section><section class="field field-name-field-text-date field-type-text field-label-above view-mode-fulltext"><h2 class="field-label">Date:&nbsp;</h2><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">1782</div></div></section><section class="field field-name-field-image-date field-type-partial-date field-label-above view-mode-fulltext"><h2 class="field-label">Image Date:&nbsp;</h2><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">1782</div></div></section><section class="field field-name-field-original-publication-date field-type-date field-label-above view-mode-fulltext"><h2 class="field-label">Original publication date:&nbsp;</h2><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><span class="date-display-single" property="dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="1782-01-01T00:00:00-05:00">1782</span></div></div></section><section class="field field-name-field-original-pub-date field-type-text field-label-above view-mode-fulltext"><h2 class="field-label">Image Added Date:&nbsp;</h2><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">2009-4-30</div></div></section><section class="field field-name-field-gallery-location field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above view-mode-fulltext"><h2 class="field-label">Location:&nbsp;</h2><ul class="field-items"><li class="field-item even"><a href="/category/gallery-locations/goodrich-castle-51%CB%9An-2%CB%9A-w" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Goodrich Castle (51˚N, 2˚ W)</a></li><li class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/gallery-locations/river-wye" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">River Wye</a></li></ul></section><section class="field field-name-field-primary-works field-type-text-long field-label-above view-mode-fulltext"><h2 class="field-label">Primary Works:&nbsp;</h2><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">William Gilpin's <em>Observations on the River Wye, and Several Parts of South Wales, etc. Relative Chiefly to Picturesque Beauty; Made in the Summer of the Year 1770</em>, first published in 1782.</div></div></section><section class="field field-name-field-accession-number- field-type-text field-label-above view-mode-fulltext"><h2 class="field-label">Accession Number:&nbsp;</h2><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Thordarson T 1712</div></div></section><section class="field field-name-field-height-in-centimeters field-type-text field-label-above view-mode-fulltext"><h2 class="field-label">Height (in centimeters):&nbsp;</h2><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">11</div></div></section><section class="field field-name-field-width-in-centimeters- field-type-text field-label-above view-mode-fulltext"><h2 class="field-label">Width (in centimeters):&nbsp;</h2><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">16</div></div></section><section class="field field-name-field-featured-in-exhibit field-type-entityreference field-label-above view-mode-fulltext"><h2 class="field-label">Featured in Exhibit:&nbsp;</h2><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/gallery/exhibit/a-visual-revolution-on-the-wye-tour">A Visual Revolution on the Wye Tour</a></div></div></section><section class="field field-name-field-from-the-collection field-type-entityreference field-label-above view-mode-fulltext"><h2 class="field-label">From the Collection:&nbsp;</h2><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/gallery/collection/department-special-collections-memorial-library-university-wisconsin-madison">Department of Special Collections, Memorial Library, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI</a></div></div></section><section class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-3 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above view-mode-fulltext"><h2 class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</h2><ul class="field-items"><li class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/1778" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">ruin</a></li><li class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/tags/river" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">river</a></li><li class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/997" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">picturesque</a></li><li class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/tags/goodrich-castle" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Goodrich Castle</a></li><li class="field-item even"><a href="/category/tags/wye" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Wye</a></li><li class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/tags/tourism" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">tourism</a></li></ul></section><section class="field field-name-field-style field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above view-mode-fulltext"><h2 class="field-label">Style:&nbsp;</h2><ul class="field-items"><li class="field-item even"><a href="/category/style/landscape" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Landscape</a></li><li class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/style/sketch-%E2%80%9Ctaken-from-life%E2%80%9D" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Sketch (“taken from life”)</a></li></ul></section><section class="field field-name-field-artist-unknown field-type-list-boolean field-label-above view-mode-fulltext"><h2 class="field-label">Artist Unknown:&nbsp;</h2><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"></div></div></section><section class="field field-name-field-creator-painter field-type-entityreference field-label-above view-mode-fulltext"><h2 class="field-label">Painter:&nbsp;</h2><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Gilpin, William</div></div></section><section class="field field-name-field-creation-technique- field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above view-mode-fulltext"><h2 class="field-label">Creation Technique:&nbsp;</h2><ul class="field-items"><li class="field-item even"><a href="/category/creation-technique/aquatint" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Aquatint</a></li></ul></section><section class="field field-name-field-support-medium field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above view-mode-fulltext"><h2 class="field-label">Support Medium:&nbsp;</h2><ul class="field-items"><li class="field-item even"><a href="/category/support-medium/paper" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Paper</a></li></ul></section><section class="field field-name-field-parent-section field-type-entityreference field-label-above view-mode-fulltext"><h2 class="field-label">Parent Section:&nbsp;</h2><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Romantic Circles Gallery</div></div></section><section class="field field-name-field-skeleton-data- field-type-list-boolean field-label-above view-mode-fulltext"><h2 class="field-label">Skeleton Data?:&nbsp;</h2><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"></div></div></section><section class="field field-name-field-latitude-longitude field-type-geofield field-label-above view-mode-fulltext"><h2 class="field-label">Latitude/Longitude:&nbsp;</h2><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">POINT (-2.615792 51.876875)</div></div></section><section class="field field-name-field-description-other field-type-text-long field-label-above view-mode-fulltext"><h2 class="field-label">Description (Other):&nbsp;</h2><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="edition_and_state"><h2 class="section-label">Edition and State</h2>Fifth Edition</div><div class="printing_context"><h2 class="section-label">Printing Context</h2><em>Goodrich Castle</em> first appeared in Gilpin’s travel journal, likely as an ink-and-wash sketch. Gilpin waited to publish his journal for several years, largely due to his dissatisfaction with printed recreations of his sketches. Using a crude combination of etching and aquatint, Gilpin's journal and sketches were finally published as <em>Observations on the River Wye, and Several Parts of South Wales, etc. Relative Chiefly to Picturesque Beauty; Made in the Summer of the Year 1770</em> in 1782. Beginning in 1789, however, <em>Goodrich Castle</em> and most of Gilpin’s original sketches were recreated in subsequent, published editions solely using the developed aquatinting technique.</div><div class="associated_events"><h2 class="section-label">Associated Events</h2><em>The Wye Tour</em><em></em><div class="customBreak"><br /><br /></div>The popularity of the Wye Tour, a picturesque tour through the England-Wales border down the River Wye, increased exponentially during the 1780s and the decades that followed (though the Wye river was a popular site for at least twenty-five years before Gilpin’s tour); this was due in large part to the tour guide-book <em>Observations on the River Wye</em>, written by the Reverend William Gilpin and published in 1782. The tour focused on the natural beauty of the Wye Valley, especially the part of the Valley that fit Gilpin’s idea of the “correctly picturesque”—usually characterized by a natural object (e.g., a tree, a stone, cliffs; anything not human-made) which stood out in stark contrast to its surroundings and was often in close proximity to people or human-made objects (factories, bridges, and the like). The tour lasted two to three days by boat (the most common form of travel for tourists) or carriage (used only by the very wealthy), and significantly longer by foot; William Wordsworth and his sister, Dorothy, took a walking tour of the Wye Valley in 1798 (see William Wordsworth’s memorial poem “Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey on Revisiting the banks of the Wye Valley during a tour, July 13, 1798”). The most common form of travel was by pleasure boat, which featured a canopy to shield tourists from the wind, sun, and rain; a handful of tables for writing or drawing; and several oarsmen who acted as de facto tour guides and cost three to four guineas for two days' employment (Moir 125). The tour extended, as Gilpin noted, “To [Chepstow] from Ross, which is a course of near 40 miles” and featured “a succession of the most picturesque scenes” (Gilpin 7). Highlights included Ross-on-Wye, Goodrich Castle, Symond’s Yat, Monmouth, Tintern Abbey, Piercefield, Chepstow Castle, and, finally, the junction of the Rivers Wye and Severn at Chepstow.<div class="customBreak"><br /><br /></div> <em>Picturesque Tourism</em><div class="customBreak"><br /><br /></div>Picturesque tourism as an industry was largely popularized by the publication of Gilpin’s <em>Observations on the River Wye</em> in 1782. Tourists of the "picturesque" traveled to Scotland, North and South Wales, the Wye Valley, and the Lake District (in northwest England) in search of scenery manifesting this ideal. Oftentimes, tourists brought watercolors to quickly paint or sketch the scenes that most captivated them, in the fashion of Gilpin. These tourists, and their dogged pursuit of the picturesque, would later be lampooned by caricaturists in the early years of the 1800s, but picturesque tourism maintained significant popularity until the mid-nineteenth century.</div><div class="associated_places"><h2 class="section-label">Associated Places</h2><em>The Wye River</em><div class="customBreak"><br /><br /></div> <em></em>The Wye River rises on Plynlimon Mountain in Wales and flows southeast for 130 miles. The last forty miles of the river, beginning at Ross-on-Wye, made up the Wye Tour during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Gilpin described its beauty as related primarily to its “mazy course” and “lofty banks” (Gilpin 7). The river winds along the English-Welsh border until it empties into the River Severn at Chepstow, and features the ruins of several castles, abbeys, and the like along its banks.<div class="customBreak"><br /><br /></div><em>Goodrich Castle</em><div class="customBreak"><br /><br /></div>Built c. 1160-1170 on a riverbank high above the River Wye, the keep is the oldest part of the castle. The gatehouse was completed around 1300; relatively soon afterwards, the castle fell into ruination. Goodrich Castle, “Boosom’d high in tufted Trees” (Gilpin 19), formed “the first great spectacle” of the tour (Andrews, <em>In Search of the Picturesque</em> 90), and earned Gilpin’s praise as “correctly picturesque” since it was such “a very grand view” (Gilpin 17-18). Goodrich Castle was located just before New Weir and the massive rock Symonds Yat (which rose 470 feet above the river), about 3 miles downriver from the launch-point at Ross-on-Wye. As the first great spectacle of the tour, Goodrich Castle helped set the tone for the picturesque scenes to come.</div><div class="associated_texts"><h2 class="section-label">Associated Texts</h2><em>The Banks of Wye: a Poem in Four Books</em> by Robert Bloomfield (1811)<div class="customBreak"><br /><br /></div>Bloomfield, famous for his semi-autobiographical poem <em>The Farmer’s Boy</em> (1800), took a ten day tour of the Wye Valley during a period in his life marked by personal and professional turmoil. The tour rejuvenated him, and the versification of his travel journal eventually became <em>The Banks of Wye: a Poem in Four Books</em> (Kaloustian). The poem is primarily significant for two reasons. First, and most obviously, it addresses the scenery and spectacles of the Wye Tour, giving the reader a good idea of what to expect on such a tour. Second, it follows the decidedly Wordsworthian example of examining the effects of that scenery on the self. Passages like the following endow the scenery with the ability to affect humans:
<blockquote>Till bold, impressive, and sublime,<div class="customBreak"><br /><br /></div>Gleam’d all that’s left by storms and time<div class="customBreak"><br /><br /></div>Of GOODRICH TOWERS. The mould’ring pile<div class="customBreak"><br /><br /></div>Tells noble truths,—but dies the while.<div class="customBreak"><br /><br /></div>(Bloomfield 1.149-52)</blockquote>
Note how the ruins of Goodrich Castle are capable of telling “noble truths,” a direct interaction that Gilpin <em>et alia</em> would have either not noticed or summarily dismissed. Other passages focusing on the direct effect of natural images on the viewer include the following:
<blockquote>Then CHEPSTOW’S ruin’d fortress caught<div class="customBreak"><br /><br /></div>The mind’s collected store of thought,<div class="customBreak"><br /><br /></div>A dark, majestic, jealous frown<div class="customBreak"><br /><br /></div>Hung on his brow, and warn’d us down.<div class="customBreak"><br /><br /></div>(Bloomfield 2.315-18)</blockquote>
and
<blockquote>TINTERN, thy name shall hence sustain<div class="customBreak"><br /><br /></div>A thousand raptures in my brain;<div class="customBreak"><br /><br /></div>Joys, full of soul, all strength, all eye,<div class="customBreak"><br /><br /></div>That cannot fade, that cannot die.<div class="customBreak"><br /><br /></div>(Bloomfield 2.131-34)</blockquote>
The first of these passages features not only personification of Chepstow Castle, but also describes the ruins’ ability to catch “the mind’s collected store of thought,” as well as its capacity to “warn” viewers. This warning is likely related to mortality, given the nearby mention of the “setting sun” (Bloomfield 2.313), a typical symbol of waning life. The second passage also utilizes one of the Wye Tour’s most famous spectacles (Tintern Abbey) to illustrate scenery’s ability to influence the viewer. The mere name of the Abbey is enough to call to the poet’s mind “a thousand raptures,” some of which included “priest[s] or king[s]” (2.124), “some BLOOD-STAIN’D warrior’s ghost” (2.125), or “grass-grown mansions of the dead” (2.114). The capacity of Nature to wreak such significant alterations in a viewer’s psyche runs diametrically opposed to the strictly evaluative eye of the picturesque tourist, and embodies a decidedly post-“Lines” worldview.</div><div class="subject"><h2 class="section-label">Subject</h2>This image features Goodrich Castle, a ruin dating to the twelfth century. This was the first great spectacle tourists experienced during the Wye Tour. <em>Goodrich Castle</em>, like <em>Grand Woody Banks near Ross-on-Wye</em>, is an aquatint recreation of a sketch in William Gilpin's travel journal. Unlike other sketches of Gilpin's in which he "edited" the natural scenery, <em>Goodrich Castle</em> is largely representational as he deemed the scene "correctly Picturesque" (Gilpin 7).</div><div class="theme"><h2 class="section-label">Theme</h2>Ruin. River. Picturesque. Goodrich Castle. Wye. Tourism.</div><div class="significance"><h2 class="section-label">Significance</h2>During the Romantic period in England, Gilpin helped popularize picturesque tourism—that is, sightseeing centered on experiencing the Romantic notion of the picturesque: a natural object, such as a stone, tree, etc., that stood out in stark contrast to its surroundings and often impressed the viewer with a feeling of the sublime. Consequently, the theme of “editing” nature to make it properly picturesque pervades Gilpin’s work; he used his sketches to convey to readers what he saw as reinvented by his own mind, and to encourage them to pursue similar views. However, the boatmen that acted as de facto tour guides on the Wye scoffed at Gilpin’s (mis)representations, and advised tourists familiar with Gilpin’s guidebook not to bother looking for the scenes “recreated" there since they did not, in fact, exist (William Mason, qtd. in Barbier 71).<div class="customBreak"><br /><br /></div>As opposed to Thomas Hearne’s exact watercolor depiction of Goodrich Castle (Hearne’s work is noted for its “topographical” accuracy), Gilpin’s rendition is more dramatic (Fenwick). Gilpin effaces some of the hills, remaking them as cliffs; introduces a large tree or shrub to the left foreground to frame the central hill; and cloaks both sides of the river in <em>sfumato</em>, obscuring which way it bends. By effacing the hills, Gilpin has introduced a contrast in texture to the leaves of the trees that is not present in Hearne’s more detailed recreation. However, Gilpin’s editing here is not as rigorous as in other examples of his work, since he deemed Goodrich Castle “correctly picturesque” (Gilpin 18). Besides the contrast of texture between the foliage of the banks and the rock of the hills, the picturesque is also invoked in this scene by the centrality of the featured ruins, an integral part of many properly picturesque landscapes. Interaction between the human and natural worlds occurs in the meeting of the trees with the castle's wall in the left third of the sketch, and the sublime is manifested in the size of the sheer hills as well as in the blending of trees and horizon.</div><div class="bibliography"><h2 class="section-label">Bibliography</h2>Andrews, Malcolm. “Gilpin, William (1724–1804).” <em>Oxford Dictionary of National Biography</em>. Online ed. Ed. Lawrence Goldman. Oxford: OUP, 2004. 28 Mar. 2009.<div class="customBreak"><br /><br /></div>---. <em>In Search of the Picturesque</em>. Stanford: Stanford UP, 1989. Print.<div class="customBreak"><br /><br /></div>Barbier, C.P. <em>William Gilpin</em>. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1963. Print.<div class="customBreak"><br /><br /></div>Bloomfield, Robert. <em>The Banks of Wye: a Poem in Four Books</em>. London: Longman; Hurst; Rees; Orme; etc., 1813. Print. <div class="customBreak"><br /><br /></div> Fenwick, Simon. “Hearne, Thomas (1744–1817).” <em>Oxford Dictionary of National Biography</em>. Online ed. Ed. Lawrence Goldman. Oxford: OUP, 2004. 29 Mar. 2009.<div class="customBreak"><br /><br /></div>Gilpin, William. <em>Observations on the River Wye</em>. 1782. Oxford: Woodstock Books, 1991. Print. Revolution and Romanticism, 1789-1834.<div class="customBreak"><br /><br /></div> Mersey, Daniel. "Goodrich Castle." <em>The Castles of Wales Website</em>. Jeffrey L. Thomas, 2009. Web. 22 Aug. 2013.<div class="customBreak"><br /><br /></div>Michasiw, Kim I. "Nine Revisionist Theses on the Picturesque." <em>Representations</em> 38 (1992): 76-100. Print.<div class="customBreak"><br /><br /></div>Moir, Esther. <em>The Discovery of Britain; The English Tourists</em>. London: Routledge & K. Paul, 1964. Print.</div><div class="long_title"><h2 class="section-label">Long Title</h2>OBSERVATIONS ON THE RIVER WYE, AND SEVERAL PARTS OF SOUTH WALES, &c. RELATIVE CHIEFLY TO PICTURESQUE BEAUTY; Made in the Summer of the Year 1770, By WILLIAM GILPIN, M.A. VICAR of BOLDRE near LYMINGTON. LONDON: PRINTED FOR R. BLAMIRE IN THE STRAND. SOLD BY B. LAW, AVE MARY LANE; AND R. FAULDER, NEW BOND STREET. M.DCC.LXXXII.</div></div></div></section>Tue, 16 Apr 2013 18:41:04 +0000Anonymous38494 at http://www.rc.umd.edu